'Though Of You' dance reference

A great dance sequence in 2D is a great inspiration for my Rap and Clap animation. I don't think i want to mimic the style of dancing but from this you can see the fluidity and smoothness between movements is very important. As well as a contrast between fast and slow movement.

Dr House limp.

Besides from being a funny video this is a great reference of a limp from my favourite medical TV drama. The use of a cane is somethign to consider with animating a limp and whether or not it fits my chracters traits, enviroment and era.

Limping woman reference

Here is a video shot of a limping woman, you can see how she protects her leg by keeping it stiff as her weight transfers from one leg to the other. This action is important to simulate in my personality walk but i don't want mine to be as extreme as this.

Squash ball slow motion

This squash ball hitting a box in slow motion is a great reference the squash and stretch but a bit to extreme for what I want i nmy animation although the shapes are great and will try and replicate this motion just less extreme.

Ball and box referencing - good reactions

Some good reactions from the box landing on the seesaw and the ball jumping up from the impact.

Personality Walk - Final Animation

My final animation for the personality walk.

Walk Cycle - Final Animation

My final walk cycle animation.

Rap and Clap - Final Animation

This is my Final Rap and Clap animation. I'm pretty happy with it. I think the turns towards the countertop seem a unnatural and i struggled making it so i was happy with it. This is the best compromise i could get.

Lip Sync - Final Animation

My final lip sync animation.

Ball and Box - Final Animation

Ball and Box final animation.

Walk cycle resource

In my opinion this is a superb walk cycle, it's smooth, not overwelming and has attention to detail.

Rap and Clap - referencing the music video.

Here is the original music video from where my audio clip is from. I don't think i'm going to use this reference much but it's good to get a feel for the song and artist.

Rap and Clap - Final animation test

Here is the final playblast before i render it out. I've added the toast pop and changed the beggining zoom out from the radio instead of above his head. I think it gives it afocus point from the start instead of a few random polygons. It also shows that he is singing and dancing to the radio and not randomly.

Rap and Clap - Nearing the end

After a lot of tweaking, changing and head scratching i am almost there, Just some final pieces to add in near the end. I'm happy with how this has progressed so far and hopefully my final animation shall be solid.

Rap and Clap - Blocking

This is my blocked out animation. From here I will continue blocking out and switching between stepped and linear until I am ready for splined animation and further editing.

Rap and Clap - Lip Syncing

Here is the lip syncing for the piece, It needs some fine tuning and tweaking, especially in the eyebrows. But least i get a feel of what his body will be doing comparative to his mouth which helps me decided on keyframes and timing.

Rap and Clap Reference

My housemate helping me with reference footage. This was just to get some ideas for moves and actions I could put into the clip.

Lip Sync almost there

My lip sync is almost complete. Just some final tweaks and sorting out of the curves.

Video reference for the lip sync, i've put the ausio clip over the top of it so in places the sync isn't perfect but thats my fault and not reading the lines at the right time and not any editing. This has helped me tremendously in working out my keys and actions for my animation.

Lip Sync progress difficulties

After thinking about the animation and doing some more work on it I've decided on not happy with the way things are going on it. This is what I've got to so far before I change it.

I like the beginning phrase, but then it just gets a worse from there on. I'm going to rethink my key poses and shoot some overdue reference footage. I'll report back tomorrow

I've splined my animation and made some slight alterations but i don't like the way it looks like it's going at the moment. Hopefully i can rectify that soon by adding more inbetweens.

Lip Sync (more blocking out)

I've changed some of the blocking and added more towards the beggining. Soon i hope to change to splines and add some animation to the eyes and eyebrows.

Lip Sync (blocking)

I've put the blocking in but i'm still not quite sure. The beggining looks a little fast and the end a bit slow. I need to put some more movement towards the end of the sequence and use the hands to be a bit more expressive.

Lip sync - take two

Done all the mouth movements and moving on to some finer details around the mouth area. Still a lot of tweaking as I go into the blocking out of my characters movement stage which i plan to go on to next.

Lip sync - take one

I went with the 'believe' audio clip for my lip sync because I feel that it will challenge me in displaying emotions on my character, especially between the pauses. I have done the rough up and down of the jaw and started the sides of the mouth moving in and out here.

Personality walk - almost there...

I have finished with the walk cycle and I am pretty happy with the loop and timing. I slowed the whole walk cycle down from a 35 frame loop to a 30 frame loop. I will block it out and hopefully add a section in the middle where he pauses because of sun glare and carries on afterwards if I have enough time.

Then I need to add in some lights and cameras and render it out similar to what I have planned for the normal walk cycle

Walk cycle - Finished version

Here is my normal walk cycle ready to be rendered out on 3 different cameras. I will have a perspective view where the character is walking towards the camera. Then I will have a front and side camera which tracks along with the character.

Personality Walk - update

I've done some more work makign it smoother. The right hand is holding his hurt leg and i changed the left arm to not be as dramatic. It still feels kind of slow but it is the same timing as my reference footage. I just need a few minor tweaks and  then i'll block it out.

Walk cycle- another attempt, another rig.

So after much deliberation I decided to change to another rig. I took a liking to the Morpheus rig by Josh Burton. It has a more advanced rig set up than Moom and a lot more controls for little tweaks. I find this rig a lot more comfortable to work with.

As for the animation, I think it needs more tweaking, it seems to jumpy on the looping and I think he bounds to much on the Y axis for a 'Normal/average' walk cycle. I also have had no more problem with leg creep or any other type of wacky movements when looped. I kept an eye on all the value's I inputted for the main body control and the feet.

My first walk cycle attempt

My first attempt at a walk cycle using the Moom rig. Even after sort out cycles and it still failing i decided that starting again would be a better option. The more practise the better and I'll make sure I keep an eye on my key frames more.